2012 Yearly Report

Michelle
Thompson
(C58) started off his year in fine style in the inaugural
Injinji Mt Stromlo 12 Hour event which was held at the Mt Stromlo
Criterium course in Canberra. The flat fast bitumen loop of 1km
combined with the overnight scheduling (the event started at 6:30PM on
the Saturday evening) ensured good conditions for both runners and
walkers. The event was of a very high standard with the first 12
competitors all in excess of 100km (very good by Australian standards)
and it was fantastic to see Michelle amongst the elite grouping at the
front, coming 11th overall with a huge PB of 101.158km and taking third
place overall in the women's section – all done as a walker! Steve
Jordan was further back and probably had what he would describe as a
bad day at the office, finishing 23rd with 71.227km.

To put Michelle's walk in context, the
previous 12
Hour best by an Australian was by Carol Baird who completed 97.550km in
Melbourne in 2002. The only woman to have walked further on Australian
soil in 12 hours is the great English walker Sandra Brown who completed
103.600km in Melbourne in 1999 (on her way to her 100 mile qualifier).
Unfortunately for Michelle, our records are track based and, since this
was a road event, she can't claim any records but will have to be
content with 'best' status. Michelle's 100km split of 11:51:22 propels
her to 15th all time for women world wide. This is a fantastic result
for this talented walker and one on which I am sure she will soon
improve.

The Coburg 6 Hour Track Championships
were held on
Sunday 11
March, 5 weeks before the 24 hour races. Of the field of starters,
there were 12 walkers ably led by centurions Michelle Thompson (C58), Terry O'Neill
(C18), Karyn O'Neill (C 45) and Clarrie Jack (C 4).

The walk was dominated by Michelle. A previous winner of the Coburg 24
Hour event in both run division (2010) and walk division (2011) and the
fastest ever woman in Australia over the 50km racewalk distance
(5:13:14 in 2011), she added yet another record to her ever increasing
supply with her 6 Hour walk distance of 54.636km. This broke the
Australian All-Comers record, set by Sandra Brown of England in 1999
(54.180km). Of course, to be fair to Sandra, her walk was in the
context of a 100 mile effort! Indeed, magnificent walks by both women.

Michelle led from the start, with Terry and Clarrie close on her heels.
However, they could not match her unrelenting pace and gradually fell
behind. Terry held on well, recording a PB of 53.379km, just outside
Peter Bennett's Australian M55 record, while Clarrie finished with
50.260km. NSW runner Kim Cook was next in with a very impressive
inaugural walk distance of 47.613km. He was followed by Steve Jordan
who was next in with 44.492km. New Zealand Centurions secretary Philip
Sharp followed him with 43.940km (significantly further than last year)
and the field was rounded out by John Timms 43.021km, Alex Poore
39.027km (our oldest competitor at 73 years of age), Ken Carter
29.459km and Rudolf Skrucany 29.444km.

Karyn O'Neill was second in the women's walk with 45.364km (very close
to her best) while Sandra Howorth was third with 38.422km.

April saw the annual Australian Centurions 24 Hour qualifying event at
the Harold Stevens Athletics Track at Coburg. Being a combined
championship, 24 runners and 21 walkers toed the line at 10AM on
Saturday morning awaiting the gun with runners restricted to lanes 1-2
and the walkers in lanes 3-4 of the 400m track.

Conditions were hot during the first day and the 10AM start meant that
competitors had to endure around 7 hours of sun and heat before relief
was forthcoming. But endure it they did with most still on the track as
the sun set. Come 6:30AM the next morning as dawn broke and they were
still at it albeit, in many cases, a bit the worse for wear!

We welcomed 5 overseas walkers in 2012 – Rudy Schoors, Caroline
Mestdagh, Eddy Goeman and Willy Vermeulen of Belgium along with Sean
Pender of Ireland / England. They joined the cream of our own local
ultra walking crop in Peter Bennett, Michelle Thompson, Terry O'Neill
and Clarrie Jack. And we also had a number of other impressive local
contenders, some of them repeat offenders and some first timers with
impressive credentials. First to the overall results:

24 Hour Walk Men

1

Rudy Schoors (C55)

BEL

173.387 km

2

Eddy Goeman (C60) **

BEL

161.318 km

3

Peter Bennett (C24)

QLD

161.318 km

4

Steve Jordan

VIC

157.232 km

5

Willy Vermeulen

BEL

155.927 km

6

Martin Fryer

ACT

152.241 km

7

Kim Cook

NSW

134.694 km

8

John Timms

VIC

128.682 km

9

Louis Commins

NSW

110.849 km

10

Terry O'Neill (C18)

VIC

88.331 km

11

Phil Essam

ACT

86.052 km

12

Sean Pender

UK

70.499 km

13

Ken Carter

VIC

60.132 km

14

Doug McKay

VIC

59.717 km

16

Clarrie Jack (C4)

VIC

48.105 km

16

Gary Turner

VIC

33.591 km

24 Hour walk Women

1

Caroline Mestdagh (C56)

BEL

162.562 km

2

Michelle Thompson (C58)

VIC

149.707 km

3

Dawn Parris

VIC

141.097 km

4

Diana Kelly

VIC

125.244 km

5

Sandra Howorth

VIC

53.496 km

Four walkers walked in excess of 100 miles. Rudy, Caroline and Peter
have all completed centurion walks previously
in Australia but for Eddy it was his first time so he joined our ranks
as Australian Centurion Number 60.

Eddy Goeman

BEL

C60

21:16:23

Rudy Schoors

BEL

C55

22:10:05

Caroline Mestdagh

BEL

C56

22:48:25

Peter Bennett

QLD

C24

22:53:09

Michelle Thompson who set new Australian Open Residential and new
Australian W40 records as follows

Michelle Thompson

VIC

50 Miles

9:35:43

Michelle Thompson

VIC

12 Hours

98.655 km

Michelle Thompson

VIC

100 km

12:09:52

The
placegetters in the Australian 100km Championship were as follows

Men
100 km Australian Championship

1
2
3

Peter Bennett
Eddy Goeman
Rudy Schoors

QLD
BEL
BEL

12:03:41
12:44:57
13:37:53

Women 100 km Australian Championship

1
2
3

Michelle Thompson
Caroline Mestdagh
Dawn Parris

VIC
BEL
VIC

12:09:52
13:37:58
16:02:25

TheJack
Webber Trophywas awarded toEddy
Goeman(C 60) for the most meritorious
Centurion performance on the day.

24 Heures de Rouen, Rouen, France
16-17 June 2012

Peter Bennett travelled to France in mid June to defend his title in
the 24 Heures de Rouen and defend it he did with a final winning
distance of 213km. It is
always a challenge to find the actual results from this race as it does
not seem to have any web presence whatsover. Peter's performances in
this event over the years have been pretty astonishing in terms of
excellence and consistency:

The Blacktown Olympic Park complex in western Sydney was the venue for
the 2012 Sri Chinmoy Australian 24 Hour Track Championships. This
annual event swaps between the Sri Chinmoy Carnival (even years) and
the Coburg Carnival (odd years) and this year it was Sydney's turn.

First to the weather which was a talking point. The photos below make
it look pretty good and that was indeed the case on Saturday (10AM Sat
morning start time) but by 4:30PM we were rummaging out jumpers and
tracksuits as the temperature plummeted. By nightfall it was very cold
and as the hours of darkness dragged on endlessly and the frost came,
it got even colder. In fact, it was definitely the toughest night I
have ever spent at one of these events. One of the many support crew
went out to the carpark to have a snooze in their car late in the night
and the temperature outside the car registered as -3C. Yes, we all
survived but it didn't help my cold!

The field of 32 starters included 5 walkers - Victorians Michelle
Thompson and Steve Jordan and NSW entrants Kim Cook, Saul Richardson
and Kip Melham. The aim of all the walkers was to reach 100 miles
(160.9km) in the required 24 hours but it was a very hard ask in such
conditions. The feat requires a very good first half and Michelle,
Steve, Kim and Kip were all on target at the 12 hour mark with
intermediate splits in excess of 80km. Kim retired at that stage with
blistered feet and Kip and Steve both found that they slowed too much
in the second half and eventually also called it quits. Saul walked for
the full duration to achieve 128.856km, a good first up effort for
someone with no prior experience.

So it was left to Michelle, our top lady ultra walker, to do the deed
and she did so in fine style, recording a PB final distance of
174.893km. But it was not easy. She had passed the 12 Hour mark with
97.0km and looked set for a much bigger distance until the cold
conditions set in and she struggled. This, combined with her own case
of bad blisters, saw her reduced to survival mode. Even so, it was
still the second fastest ever by an Australian (second only to Carol
Baird's record of 182.657km) and she set two new Australian W40 records
as follows:

Michelle Thompson

VIC

100 Miles

21:36:14

Michelle Thompson

VIC

24 Hours

174.896 km

The results of the five walkers are shown below.

9

Michelle Thompson (C58)

VIC

174.896 km

18

Saul Richardson

NSW

128.856 km

19

Steve Jordan

VIC

126.514 km

21

Anyce 'Kip' Melham

NSW

122.800 km

29

Kim Cook

NSW

85.600 km

South Australian 24 Hour Road Champs,
North Adelaide
14-15 July 2012

Victorian ultra distance runner Justin
Scholz went to Adelaide in mid July with a slightly different
challenge in mind to normal. One of our best Australian long distance
runners with a 24 Hour run best of 203.278 km, he was keen to attempt
the centurion walk (walk 100 miles or 160.9km within 24 hours). He had
approached me about this in June and once I had confirmed that
Australian Centurion David Billett would be there to verify the
performance, I gave Justin the go ahead to proceed. The course was the
usual 2.200km circuit on footpaths surrounding the North Adelaide
parklands with the start/finish at the Adelaide University Sports Field
and the event was run by the SA Road Runners Assn. And complete the 100
miles is just what he did, in 22:09:03.
He did another lap for safety and then called it quits with a total
distance of 163.900 km to take sixth place overall. With this walk,
Justin becomes Australian Centurion
number 61.

The weekend of 27-29 July saw the annual Australian 48 Hour and
Queensland 24 Hour Track championships in Caboolture Historical
Village. The events are principally running championships but we
often see walkers in action and this year was no exception with 4 walk
participants. Victorian ultra run champion Barry Loveday tried himself out in
the 48 Hour walk (his first ever walking race) and he finished second
overall against the runners with 283.500km, the longest distance ever
walked in Australia and some 3 km further than Peter Bennett's current
Australian record. QRWC president Peter
Bennett finished 2nd overall and first male in the 24 Hour track
championship with 185.293km to set a new Australian M55 record (and he
was only 1km outside his best ever Australian walk). Victorian Steve Jordan also walked in the 24H
race, recording a final distance of 115.635km. The final walker was
QRWC member Sarah Vardanega who
finished 12th in the 6 Hour walk with 48.242km. She then continued on
to the 50km mark, done in 6:12:40 for a new Queensland record. So it
was a good weekend for the small group of walkers. A quick extract
follows:

Australian 48 Hour Track
Championship

2

Barry Loveday (C 62)

VIC

283.500 km

Queensland 24 Hour Track
Championship

2

Peter Bennett (C 24)

QLD

185.293 km

9

Steve Jordan

VIC

115.635 km

6 Hour Track Race

12

Sarah Vardanega

QLD

48.242 km

Barry became Australian Centurion number 62 along the way with a 100
mile split of 22:37.56. Peter Bennett also completed yet another 100
miler, his 16th in all, with his 100 mile split of 20:40:22. For those
statistically minded, their splits were

Barry Loveday (C 62)

12 Hours

86.887 km

100 Km

13:50:38

100 Miles

22:37:56

24 Hours

167.500 km

200 km

31:35:49

48 Hours

283.500 km

New Australian All Comers Record

Peter
Bennett (C 24)

12 Hours

98.664km

100km

12:11:03

100 Miles

20:40:22

New M55 All-Comers and
Residential Records

24 Hours

185.293 km

New M55 All-Comers and
Residential Records

Victorian 6 Hour Track Championships,
Moe, Victoria
25 November 2012

The Victorian 6 Hour Track
Championships, which have been held since 1996, are scheduled each
November in Moe, eastern Victoria. The event includes both run and walk
divisions and, as usual, the 2012 vent included a small group of
walkers. The 8AM start did not help much as it was a very hot day with
the sun out early but the four walkers all walked well and kept at it
for the full 6 hours. The star of the show was definitely Barry
Loveday (C 62) whose distance of 57.090 km was fantastic considering
this was only his third walking race. He raced in Caboolture in August
2012 in the Australian 48 Hour Track Championship, walking the whole
way and coming third overall against the field of runners, his distance
of 283km a new Australian best. Then he fronted at Middle Park for a
20km walk in September, recording 2:03:55. In this, his third race, he
walked a fantastic 57.1km. His hourly splits tell the story of his
walk: 9.95km, 19.75km, 29.2km, 38.6km, 47.9km, 57.1km
(9.95km, 9.8km, 9.45km, 9.4km, 9.3km, 9.2km).

1

Barry Loveday (C 62)

VIC

57.090 km

2

Brian Glover

VIC

46.308 km

3.

Steve Jordan

VIC

44.226 km

4.

John Timms

VIC

34.697 km

Barry's 6 Hour distance was the third best ever done in Australia and
was a new M35 Australian All-Comers record.

Coast to Cosci Ultra Distance Run, NSW
7-9 December 2012

Fancy a nice walk through some of
Australia's finest scenery? Then look no further than the Coast to
Kosci. This iconic event has been going since 2004 when it was first
held informally with 3 runners, two of whom completed the full 240km
route. It has now built up into one of the major events on the
Australian ultra calendar and 2012 saw 34 entrants testing themselves
out in this most daunting of events. The race started at 5:30am on
Friday December 7th at Boydtown Beach on the NSW coast and proceeded
inland, climbing over 2000m overall to Australia's highest point atop
Mt Kosciusko. It is a mixture of road, off road and just outright
ridiculous with competitors having to cross snow drifts in the final
section on this occasion.

Once again, we had one intrepid
walker in action in Peter Bennett (C
24). Peter competed last year, coming 19th in 38:06:38. This
year, he was even better, improving to 17th in 37:17:57. Helped by fellow centurion
Terry O'Neill and others, he was on the road continuously.